A single company will demolish all of America's Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales in just one day

Employees sort packages at a hub of an express delivery company in Nantong, Jiangsu province following Singles Day in 2012. Reuters

The biggest shopping day in the world is fast approaching.

Called Singles' Day, the anti-Valentine's Day holiday emerged in China two decades ago as a time for bachelors and bachelorettes to celebrate the single life.

Alibaba — China's largest e-commerce company — has turned the day, which falls on November 11 (11/11) every year, into the biggest 24-hour cyberspending blitz in the world by offering deep discounts on items as varied as cars and clothes.

Alibaba is expected to generate $20 billion in sales on Singles' Day this year, up from $14.3 billion last year, according to the research firm Fung Global Retail and Technology.

The holiday hasn't always been about shopping. Seven years ago, only about two dozen companies were offering discounts on Singles' Day, also known as Double 11.

Alibaba entered the game in 2009, and within three years Singles' Day had become the biggest 24-hour shopping event in the world.

An employee works at a JD.com logistic center in Langfang, Hebei province in November 2015. Reuters This year, more than 40,000 brands, including many American retailers, will participate in the event, according to Alibaba.

Costco was the top TMall Global seller on Singles Day last year. The company sold about $3.14 million worth of products in a single hour, according to Alibaba.

The most popular brands sold on Singles Day last year include Uniqlo, Nike, Adidas, and New Balance.

Workers sort packages after Singles' Day in 2015. Reuters During Singles' Day last year, one out of every 12 people in China bought products on Tmall, and one out of every 10 people outside China browsed products on Alibaba's AliExpress website, which allows consumers to buy products wholesale directly from China, according to Fung Global Retail & Technology.

Due to the volume of purchases, the shopping event creates mayhem for mail carriers every year. Photographs of mail carriers in the days following the shopping holiday show them buried in moutains of packages.

Over the course of the 24-hour event, Alibaba said it generated 467 million delivery orders, up from the 278 million packages it shipped during that period the previous year.

A hub of the Shentong (STO) Express delivery company in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, on Singles Day in 2014. Reuters